The Meta AI app and Meta AI on WhatsApp have gained a new ' incognito chat ' option, which Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg described as a ' completely private way to interact with artificial intelligence '.
Zuckerberg also said that the new feature is the first major AI product where there is no recording of conversations on servers. The CEO likened incognito chat to end-to-end encryption and said that no one will be able to read conversations with the AI, not even Meta or WhatsApp.
Meta AI incognito chat: How is privacy ensured?
- AI processing for private chat is done in a Trusted Execution Environment, which is not accessible by Meta.
- Chats disappear from the phone when the chat session closes and nothing is saved or recorded.
- Internet searches conducted privately are , with no search information associated with the user.
"To get the most out of personal superintelligence,we'll need ways to discuss sensitive topics that no one else can access," Zuckerberg said.
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WhatsApp chief Will Cathcarttold reporters that the AI has safety mechanisms in place and will refuse to answer questions that could be interpreted as harmful or illegal, leading conversations in a different direction. The feature only supports text and users cannot upload images.
Challenges of artificial intelligence
The private chat about Meta AI comes as OpenAI faces a lawsuit for allegedly causing a drug overdose in a teenager. The teenager asked ChatGPT for information about whether it was safe to take two medications together and received an incorrect answer that led to his death.
OpenAI has been sued several times by families of people who used ChatGPT before they committed suicide. The lawsuits against OpenAI included chat logs recovered by the plaintiffs, and without those logs, there would be far less evidence for a legal claim about the AI’s actions and advice.
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Google and OpenAI also offer temporary chat options, but messages are still stored on remote servers. Google keeps the data for up to three days and OpenAI keeps records for 30 days.
Meta's private chat option will roll out in the coming months to the Meta AI app and WhatsApp.
The “incognito chat” shows how privacy is now becoming a key area of competition in the artificial intelligence space. At a time when concerns about data collection, chat storage and the use of personal information are growing, Meta is trying to differentiate itself by offering a way to interact with AI without logging and without access even from the company itself. If the implementation proves reliable in practice, it could set new standards for how users will demand AI services to operate in the future.
See also: Meta brings DMs to the web version of Threads
At the same time, the debate around the liability of AI companies is becoming increasingly intense, especially after incidents and legal cases related to dangerous or incorrect responses from artificial intelligence systems. The balance between privacy protection, transparency and accountability will be one of the biggest challenges for the industry in the coming years, as AI platforms become increasingly central to users' daily lives.
